The bones of the story were good and interesting but the format of a dual timeline with only small bits of each character focus and time was so abrupt and disjointed. You couldn’t get into each part of the story before you had to switch gears again but when you returned it was at a further point in the story, and I had to both struggle to remember where I was but also infer into the gaps. It felt like riding in a car and hard-pressing the gas, then slamming the brakes, only to repeat it again.

The characters felt inconsistent to me as well, especially Will and Amos. They would be portrayed one way at one point - Will being awful or good, Amos being gossiped as “a beast” tho I never understood why - and then be completely different at other times. I could never figure out if I liked or disliked either of them. And the whole feud thing never made sense to me even when it Charlotte mentioned it at the end. But maybe in the disjointedness I just missed it. 

I think the intention was to create mystery and intrigue but when that happens so ambiguously and in tiny bits, I feel like it becomes more work to read it than is enjoyable, at least for me. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.